Charged With Illegal

A state Supreme Court justice's longtime secrecy about medical treatment for anxiety and depression led him to use employees illegally to obtain tranquilizers such as Valium, according to grand jury report. Rolf Larsen, next in line to become Pennsylvania's chief justice, will plead not guilty Monday to a conspiracy charge and 26 counts of fraudulently obtaining a controlled substance, his lawyer said. Each of the 27 counts carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

An investigation that began in August ended Monday with the arrest of a Poinciana man on 10 counts of possession of child pornography, according to the Osceola County Sheriff's Office. Elxio Rafael Colon, 40, "told detectives he downloaded the videos out of curiosity but he knew they were illegal," a report states. The videos were stored on multiple computers and storage files that were seized in February from Colon's home on Dartmouth Court, according to the sheriff's office.

A former high-ranking aide to President Francois Mitterrand has been charged with carrying out extensive illegal wiretapping while he was head of the president's personal anti-terrorism team. Gilles Menage, now chairman of state-owned Electricite de France, and four law-enforcement members of the team were charged Friday night with violating the privacy of journalists, lawyers, opposition politicians and an actress. The affair is the latest in a series of scandals, most over financial corruption, to batter France's political establishment.

Federal agents say an Orlando man has been buying guns at Orlando-area businesses, illegally shipping the weapons to Haiti, and then selling the firearms there. Kenson Jean, 32, was indicted this week by a federal grand jury after a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigation found he has shipped weapons to his native Haiti since at least October. Court records show a tipster told agents in late January that Jean applied to purchase six Glock pistols from Oakridge Gun Range on South Orange Avenue in Orlando.

Federal charges were filed Monday against a man who allegedly tried to outrun authorities with 18 immigrants in his truck, then fled before two of his passengers were beaten by sheriff's deputies. Fidel Delgado Pimental, who was charged with illegal transportation of immigrants, allegedly fled the scene on April 1 but was arrested on May 3. The high-speed chase ended in a confrontation captured on a videotape.

TWO CANADIAN fishing vessels have been seized by the United States and charged with illegal fishing in U.S. territorial waters, the State Department said Friday. Deputy spokesman Richard Boucher said the vessels were taken into custody by the U.S. Coast Guard when they were stopped in U.S. waters near the tip of the Alaskan panhandle on July 5. The vessels were escorted to the port of Ketchikan and charges were filed.

Arrested: Two Americans and 12 other foreigners. Confiscated from a remote farm near the Nicaraguan border: Rifles, bazookas, machine guns and grenades. Costa Rican authorities said the place appeared to be a training camp for guerrillas fighting the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. Interior Minister Enrique Obregon Valverde identified the Americans as Steven P. Carr and Robert Thompson. Their ages and hometowns: Not given. No formal charges were filed but U.S. Embassy sources said they could be charged with illegal possession of firearms and violation of Costa Rica's neutrality law.

AMMAN, Jordan -- Jordan has charged five men with killing a female relative who allegedly had an affair, according to a court document obtained Friday. The 22-year-old woman's father, three uncles and a fifth relative were charged with premeditated murder Thursday by Jordan's criminal court, according to the indictment sheet. It said one of the uncles confessed to shooting his niece in the head six times for allegedly having an affair with a man she eventually married. The others were reportedly involved in planning the "honor crime," and all were also charged with illegal possession of weapons.

DRUG CHARGES. Four men charged with operating a cocaine ring in Central Florida that is accused of distributing at least 22 pounds of cocaine from 1985 to 1988 were indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Orlando. Charged were Tyrone Jones, 42, of Longwood; James Thompson, 55, of Eatonville; Ted Green, age unknown, of Orlando; and Gregory Siplin, 37, also of Orlando. Jones, convicted of cocaine trafficking in 1982, also was charged with illegal possession of a firearm by a felon. Jones, accused of being the group's ringleader, faces a maximum of life in prison and $8.25 million in fines if convicted.

THE LEGISLATION that Bill McCollum pushed so fervently regarding the deportation of criminal aliens was evidently too vague. He failed to specify exactly which nationalities were obviously exempt. Perhaps it was a mere oversight not to list Canadians as exempt from deportation, even when they're charged with illegal drug use and theft. The law also fails to specify that it helps if the individual has well-connected parents who work for McCollum's own party.The legislation must be clarified for those aliens who come from poorer countries or those who don't speak English, lest they mistakenly feel reassured from the congressman's recent act of philanthropy.

AMMAN, Jordan -- Jordan has charged five men with killing a female relative who allegedly had an affair, according to a court document obtained Friday. The 22-year-old woman's father, three uncles and a fifth relative were charged with premeditated murder Thursday by Jordan's criminal court, according to the indictment sheet. It said one of the uncles confessed to shooting his niece in the head six times for allegedly having an affair with a man she eventually married. The others were reportedly involved in planning the "honor crime," and all were also charged with illegal possession of weapons.

WEST PALM BEACH -- A West Palm Beach pain-management doctor pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges of illegally distributing the painkiller OxyContin. Federal prosecutors accused Dr. Andrew D. Weiss of getting at least $200,000 in kickbacks for illegally prescribing 36,600 painkiller pills -- including OxyContin, Percocet and hydrocodone -- to people who weren't patients from 2001 to 2004. Weiss, 45, of Boca Raton faces up to 20 years in prison on each charge after pleading guilty to four counts of illegally distributing a controlled substance.

DELAND - Police arrested a 22-year-old DeLand man, a 15-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl after DeLand police and the Volusia County Sheriff's Office received at least 17 complaints of car windows shot out with BB guns. Five of the reports were within DeLand and about a dozen were in the county's jurisdiction, DeLand police said. About noon Monday, someone reported that occupants of a blue Toyota were pointing guns at people. After pulling over a car at Kentucky and University Circle, police arrested driver Michael Caldwell, 22, of DeLand and two juveniles.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- A judge formally charged the owner of a prominent Argentine newspaper Wednesday of using falsified documents to adopt children during the 1976-83 military dictatorship. Ernestina Herrera de Noble, 77, was detained last month and released as part of an investigation by judicial officials probing the fate of illegally adopted children born to captive dissidents during the "dirty war." Court authorities said she could remain free pending the investigation.

MADRID - Spanish police have arrested two men accused of using rusty tools and crude methods to carry out hundreds of back-alley abortions on Chinese immigrants working as prostitutes, officials said Thursday. Police detained two Chinese men - neither of whom had medical qualifications - and raided four buildings in the center of the Spanish capital Tuesday. ``The women we found were in such a bad state. It was like something out of a horror film,'' said police spokesman Jose Luis Povres.

HUNTINGTON, Ind. - An Indiana man was being detained Thursday on $50,000 bail for allegedly performing ``the unkindest cut of all'' - surgical castrations - on at least five men. Edward Bodkin, 55, faces a hearing in Huntington County Circuit Court next week on charges of practicing medicine without a license, a felony that carries a maximum fine of $10,000 and up to eight years in prison if he is convicted. Huntington County prosecutors said a scalpel, knives, needles and other medical equipment were seized along with videotapes when he was arrested this week.

FALLEN HERO. A man who rescued a woman from two muggers by killing one and wounding the other has been ordered held without bail for a 1987 drug conviction. ''He's a drug seller and he has a gun,'' said state Supreme Court Justice Joseph Slavin. ''I'm not going to let him out. To certain portions of the populace he's a hero, to me he's a routine bench warrant.'' Clovis Fearom, 31, bowed his head as he was handcuffed and led from the Brooklyn courtroom. Fearom told police he was Anthony Dixon after rescuing Gertrude George on Wednesday.

DELAND - Police arrested a 22-year-old DeLand man, a 15-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl after DeLand police and the Volusia County Sheriff's Office received at least 17 complaints of car windows shot out with BB guns. Five of the reports were within DeLand and about a dozen were in the county's jurisdiction, DeLand police said. About noon Monday, someone reported that occupants of a blue Toyota were pointing guns at people. After pulling over a car at Kentucky and University Circle, police arrested driver Michael Caldwell, 22, of DeLand and two juveniles.

THE LEGISLATION that Bill McCollum pushed so fervently regarding the deportation of criminal aliens was evidently too vague. He failed to specify exactly which nationalities were obviously exempt. Perhaps it was a mere oversight not to list Canadians as exempt from deportation, even when they're charged with illegal drug use and theft. The law also fails to specify that it helps if the individual has well-connected parents who work for McCollum's own party.The legislation must be clarified for those aliens who come from poorer countries or those who don't speak English, lest they mistakenly feel reassured from the congressman's recent act of philanthropy.